A Storybrook Christmas
by livelovewrite127
Summary: Christmas is supposed to be a happy time of year, but for the characters in Storybrook, that isn't usually the case. Oddly enough, the one who's had the worst Christmas's makes someone else's the best.
1. Chapter 1: Happiest time of the year?

A Storybrook Christmas

Regina Mills walked inside her huge house. It was Christmas eve, a time she didn't well enjoy. Now Regina wasn't sure why, but Christmas gave her a bitter feeling inside her. More than most things anyway. What got her mad the most was how much Henry loved it. He would decorate the house, have all the flicks on TV, and read up on all the fairytales involving Christmas. She did her best trying to make him not like it, but it only made him resent her more. She couldn't stand being around someone who loved Christmas so much, even someone she cares about. So on Christmas, she leaves him alone, not that she wanted him to be sad, just more lonely so that he wouldn't like the holiday as much. Each year the opposite effect has been happening. He simply loves it more and more. Every year she drops him off at a Christmas group with all the other town council kids. Henry hated it, and the sweaters she made him wear, and the gel she put in his hair. This, she figured, would eventually drive him to hate Christmas, but it never works, it just made him hate her.

"Henry! Are you ready?" She yelled through the echoing house.

"Yeah." A disgruntled sound came from the steps. There came little Henry in a hideous Christmas sweater and a blue collared shirt underneath. She thought he looked handsome though.

"hair." She said.

"NO! They'll beat me up again."

"They'd be lucky to have great hair like you." She said.

"Look, every year they beat me up harder and harder. Aren't you, as my mother supposed to do something about that?"

"Henry, I tried talking to their parents. They won't stop. Now come on, let's get your hair done."

"Why do you hate me?"

"I love you."

"No you don't."

"Oh and you think that woman does?" she asked as she forced him down to gel his hair in a little boy haircut fashion.

"Yes. She does." He said indignantly.

"She's just someone passing through. Like all those other places."

"Nope! Now she has a reason to stay, me!"

Regina groaned. "She doesn't love you."

"I love her." He said backing up angrily.

"Get in the car, Henry."  
>"But I don't want to…"<p>

"Go." She said firmly.

Henry muttered things under his breath about an "evil queen" and got in the car.

Emma never really had a great Christmas before, the holidays usually sucked for her. She used to love the movies on tv and what not, but Christmas made everything seem extremely lonely for her. While it was a beautiful time for people who had people to share it with, it was just a reminder for Emma of what she _didn't_ have. This year, however, could possibly be different. For one thing, she'd be spending it with Mary Margaret Blancher, and she has her son. In fact, she got Henry a Christmas present, and got Mary Margaret one too. She felt obligated to, since she was Henry's birth mother and according to Henry, Mary's daughter.

"Oh my goodness! I love them! Thank you so much, Emma." Mary Margaret exclaimed over the earrings. "Snow White is my favorite Princess."

Emma felt like gaping at this fact. "Oh… really?"

"Probably why Henry thinks I'm her." She said. Then she looked up at Emma.

"Oh I must fetch your gift."

"You didn't have too…" her heart began to race. She'd never gotten a present for Christmas before.

"Oh! Here we are!"

Emma gently unwrapped the gift wrapped in red. She treasured this moment.

Inside the box was a picture frame that said "home" on it. Inside the picture frame was a photo of Henry from when he was about 4.

"I found this in the school files. Cute wasn't he?" Mary Margaret said.

Emma smiled to herself. "Yeah, yeah he is."

There was a moment of stillness in the room and all that could be heard was the crackling of the fire. Emma looked at the small boy. He looked so much like herself in this photo. He had the same nose as her, same mischievous smile, same eyes. It amazed her that she was his mother; it took her breath away.

"Thank you." She said sincerely.

Mary Margaret smiled warmly. "I figured you'd like to see what you're son looked like when he was little, past the just born stage."

Emma nodded. "Yeah, this really means a lot."

In that moment, she noticed something else. When she met Mary Margaret's eyes, it occurred to her how much she could see herself in them. It scared her, but it was exhilarating. Maybe Henry was right. Maybe there was a magical fairytale world and this was all a big curse. Maybe she wasn't really abandoned, but saved…. Saved sounded like a way better term.

"Are you alright?" She asked softly.

"Me? Oh yeah. Yeah I'm… great."

Mary-Margaret smiled widely as if she knew what Emma was thinking, but she walked off to the door.

"I'm going to the hospital to…"

"See David." Emma smirked.

"Well…"

"He's a married man, Mary. I, too think this whole thing is extremely fishy, but for the time being, he's definitely married."

Mary Margaret nodded. "I'm still going. To… to see the other patients. Merry Christmas."

When she said it, there was no joy in her voice like there was when she'd received the earrings.

"Merry Christmas." Emma said gently. She'd wished that she hadn't said it, but by not saying it was giving her false hope right?

Before she had much time to ponder on the matter too much, there was a loud banging on the door.


	2. Chapter 2: The Best Damn Christmas

Emma opened the door. There on the front step, was a weeping Henry.

"I didn't start it! It wasn't my fault." He sobbed.

He was dressed in a hideous green sweater with Christmas trees that looked more like arrows on them, had WAY too much gel in his hair, but it was the red hand mark across his face that grasped her attention.

"Henry! What happened? Are you alright?" she asked kneeling down.

He continued to sob. "No. I… I hate that woman… and those kids, they do this kind of thing all the time.

She looked at him with a concern look on her face. "Who?" As if she really needed to ask.

"The Evil Queen and her stupid minions!" he said as blubberd.

Emma hugged him instinctively. "What did they do? What did they do to you?"

He continued to cry hysterically. "They… they… try to ruin Christmas for me."

Emma pulled back so she could look at the mark on his face again. "And how did this happen?" she asked, gently touching his cheek.

"She slapped me, in front of the entire congregation. In front of my bullies, in front of their parents, and nobody even cared."

"She did WHAT?" Emma said through gritted teeth. Picturing the little boy getting slapped boiled anger up inside her. She never thought she'd know a hatred that would burn inside her like a thousand white hot suns, but Regina put her up to that.

Henry nodded, still sobbing. "That's when I ran out. She hates Christmas so every year she tries to make me hate it." His voice was shaking.

Emma wrinkled her brow. "Why doe she hate Christmas?"

"Because her dad died on Christmas years ago… well she killed him in the Fairy tale world."

Emma's jaw tightened. She thought back to the slap in the face and gently took Henry's hand. As much as she wanted to race down there and kick the mayor's ass, cheering up her son was a priority of higher status.

"Come on, kid. Let's go inside."

They walked into the cozy abode. Henry stood there and was still silently weeping.

"They're coming after me." He said in a silent whisper.

"They won't get you." Emma said as she sat him down. "Do you want to tell me the story?"

Henry sniffled. "The whole thing? Yeah, it'll probably make more sense that way."

Emma nodded.

He sighed. "Well it was a usual Christmas eve, the evil queen made me go to the stupid children's congregation with all her coworker's kids, who happen to be my bullies. Every year it's like she makes sure I get bullied more and more so that I can blame it on Christmas. She just doesn't understand that it only makes me hate her more. She makes me wear a stupid sweater and gunk in my hair. The kids all make fun of me, and shove me around, even hurt me seriously. The Queen just gets embarrassed if I fight back. She claims I need to be stronger…"

Emma's heart felt as if it were shattered in two.

"Stronger? You are the strongest kid I've ever met, that's ridiculous. Plus, the only thing that happens when kids get bullied is…" She was going to say psychological issues, but she knew in her heart that Henry was not psychotic. Her mind was just battling that proposition with the same question "How can there be an alternate universe of fairy tale creatures, and I'm their savior?" She ignored the silent question again and sighed.

"pain. That's all that ever comes out of getting bullied." Picturing Henry being bullied was even worse than all the other bad things in the world, at least to Emma.

"I know that, but she doesn't. This year I've just had too much on my plate and I… well I couldn't handle the bullying. At school they just taunt me, but tonight they always take it to extremes."

"What did they do to you?" Emma asked with determination in her voice.

"I was walking in with the evil queen, and as I walked, everyone took notice of this dumb old sweater, my hair, and the fairytale book in my hands. The kids in my class think I'm crazy by the way. Anyway, Jeremy Tolt tripped me and made me fall flat on my face. The queen turned around and rolled her eyes. She said that I should be more careful. When I tried to tell her what happened, she said it was probably an accident. Then as I walked by Sally Crekin's row, she pulled down my pants and made me trip again. The entire place went insane with laughter. The queen asked if she should have The Sheriff write me up for public ordinance number 345: all citizens and visitors must be decent in public. Gathering whatever was left of my pride, I pulled up my pants and walked beside her again. When we finally reached the front of the church, the head guy of all the bullies, Roy Benning, kneed me between the legs, then began throwing me around with his friends. I was crying and eventually they made fun of me for that. So, I hit him as hard as I could over the head with my book, which is hardcover. His buddies tried to take me, but I screamed and leaped on one of them, Billy Lock, and began smacking him repeatedly. The Queen screamed at me, pulled me off of him, told me I was an embarrassment to her, and then when I wouldn't meet her gaze out of embarrassment and anger, she slapped me."

Emma's expression was a thinking expression. Her chest was rising in falling rapidly, her eyes were becoming more intense by the moment, and her fists were clenched.

"She. Knew. You. Were. Being. Bullied." She said through breaths.

Henry nodded slowly and wiped his tears. "She never stops it. That's why I go to therapy, well at least why I started."

Emma was definitely dealing with this. She wouldn't just stand down. Scratch that, she couldn't just stand down and let them get to her son like that. The kid was perfect. He did not deserve this. For now though, she wanted to make his Christmas the best damn Christmas he ever had.


	3. Chapter 3: Treason

Regina walked along the icy paved roads of storybrook. She was looking all over for Henry, despite being blazing mad at him. For him to embarrass her like that in front of all those people was outstandingly terrible. What if they never vote for her for next term? Now that time was moving because of Emma, who knows? What if Emma Swan got in office? Then her life really would've been ruined. No. That was not going to happen. This was her happy ending. This was how her father would not die in vein. Her father. Daddy. She missed him more than anything in the world. You could even say that Henry was supposed to be some kind of replacement for him. She wanted to love Henry the way she did her father, but she couldn't find it in her to love the boy. Maybe it was because he was that blasted Emma Swan's birth child? Nonetheless, she deserved him. Just because Emma carried him around in her stomach, which she probably considered him nothing but a mistake at the time, for nine months doesn't make her his mother. Regina changed every diaper, handled every fever. Henry resented the way she did everything. She would stick him in the freezer until it was gone. For the diaper, okay, maybe she had a maid do it, but it certainly wasn't Emma. Regina wanted Henry for her own, and the more she tried, the more she failed. All Emma had to do was exist, and Henry would always love her. She seemed to be taking quite a liking of him too, which was expected since she did give birth to him. There's something about Emma that made Regina just want to kill somebody, and Mr. Gold refused to tell her what that was.

She came across a small store where the former The little Red Riding Hood worked.

"Ruby?" she asked.

Ruby turned around. "Miss Mayor, um… what can I do for you?" It was unusual for Regina to ever get cocoa of any kind. She found no liking in it.

"You can tell me where my son is." She said flatly.

"I don't know where he is. I've been working all night."

"Surely you've seen him. If I find out you've been lying to me, I will have your job."

"My grandmother owns it." Ruby said defiantly.

"I own this town. Now where is he? If you don't tell me, I'll run you and your grandmother out of business and make sure that the only thing you've got to live for is that stupid little dog charm you're obsessed with."

There was a moment of silence and Ruby sighed. "I haven't seen him since he got his usual in here."

"His usual? He's in here a lot? And you serve him?" Regina couldn't believe this. This was an outrage, treason even.

"You could be a cold blooded murderer on the run from the po-po and I'd totally serve you. You're son is no exception."

Ruby's grandmother walked out. "Ruby? Is there a problem? Oh Madame Mayor, Merry Christmas. What can we do for you?"

Regina rolled her eyes. "It hasn't been so merry. I'm looking for my son and you're harlet of a grand daughter won't tell me where he is."

"Grandma, I don't know where he went!" she said.

"I hope you don't, because I think this shop, and you're hotel would make a nice hardware store." She said as she stormed out.

Regina sighed as she let out fumes of anger. Where would Henry go? Then it came to her. How could she be so foolish? Henry would go where he would have the best time, at his mother's abode. Why did she just call her his mother? She's his mother. Unfortunately for him, Emma Swan had a miserable upbringing and knew not the slightest bit about having a "Merry Christmas". He would've been better off talking to Archie, who was a cricket his entire childhood.

Regina smiled. "Oh Miss Swan, you are in so much trouble."


	4. Chapter 4: Not Sentimental

Emma smiled to herself softly. Henry looked up at her with a confused look on his innocent face. The gel in his hair gave him a very odd look, considering his ears stuck out.

"Henry, I say we make the best of tonight. It's Christmas eve, and… we're together."

Henry's tears stopped flowing. He looked amused and nodded slowly. "What did you have in mind?"

"I think we should start by messing up your hair." She shook his glued together hair and made it messy.

"Then I think we should ditch this itchy sweater." She ripped off the sweater.

Emma grinned. "Now, I have never had the full Christmas experience, but I've seen it on TV a lot. I think we should start by baking cookies."

"Can you cook?" Henry smirked.

She rolled her eyes. "Shut-up and get an apron."

Henry laughed and tied an apron around his tiny waist. "Like this?" he asked.

She nodded and got the cook book that Mary kept inside a cabinet near the refrigerator.

"Here we are, Christmas cookies. Okay, step one, ingredients."

"Are you sure we're going to have enough?"

"Oh yeah. And if not, we can always run out."

"Okay. What do we need?" he asked hopefully.

"1 cup butter, softened  
>1 cup granulated sugar<br>1 large egg  
>1-12 teaspoons vanilla  
>3 cups all-purpose flour<br>1-1/4 teaspoons baking powder"

"Looks like she has all of that." Henry said with a smile on his face. "This is so exciting. I've never done this before."

Emma smiled. "You and me both, kid."

They went on to making the batch of Christmas cookies, following the directions to the T and singing Christmas songs as they did so.

"Okay. Now it says to cook at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes. Simple enough right? "

"Emma, how hot is the sun?" Henry asked.

"The sun? Wait I know this. 9,940 degrees. I sucked at science, but I knew my astronomy. I loved finding the planets in the sky when I was your age."

"Same here! But I'm bad at math. The Queen has me seeing a tutor."

"I don't get why, I've seen you do your homework, you seem to do just fine."

"Yeah, but she expects me to get straight A's."

Emma sighed. "C is average right?"

"Yeah."

"Well the way I see it, you should expect your kids to get average, and if they get higher grades, then that's just a bonus. What do you get?"

"I try my best and still manage to get B's in math, but usually A's in the other stuff."

"I'm proud of you then." Emma said sincerely.

Henry smiled and suddenly the timer went off. "Ooh! I hope they taste good."

"Let's hope they're edible."

They giggled as they eat the surprisingly good cookies. "You know, Emma, you don't come off as a cook." Henry said.

"I don't? I always thought myself as a Betty Crocker-esque girl." She teased.

"Yeah right. You were praying they were edible."

Emma smiled at him. "Just eat the cookie, kay?"

Henry smiled. "We have to save some for santa. This might be the first year he's able to come in years."

Emma didn't know Henry still believed in Santa. "Why's that?"

"Well, Santa's the only storybrook character who can leave, because he's more powerful than Rumplestiltskin's curse. So, he gets to leave and deliver presents around the world. The downside is, he can't deliver to storybrook because there was a time thing… but now since you've arrived he can! He can! He can!"

Henry's whole face was lit up with joy and Emma couldn't contain a surge of joy, herself.

"Henry, what are you asking for from the big guy?" she asked.

Henry blushed. "Well… as you know I'm 10… so…"

"Toys?"

"Yeah. And fairy tale books. The Queen's never gotten me gifts before so I could never ask her for that. She thinks toys are childish and that fairy tales are trashing my mind."

Emma nodded slowly.

"I'll be right back."

She ran up the steps and into her own room. She opened the droor and pulled out a wrapped present she got for Henry.

She ran back down the steps to see Henry holding another gift that was poorly wrapped with a bow around it.

"I was planning on stopping by anyway." He said softly.

"Right." Emma said softly as she walked over to him.

Henry handed her the gift. "I made it myself. It took me forever to get the song playing."

She opened it to see another box. This one had drawings all over it of fairy tales and what not. When she opened it, there was snow white and prince charming dancing to "When you wish upon a star."

"Oh my God, kid. This is awesome." She said while trying not to allow herself to get too emotional. "I love it, Thank you!"

"You do?"

"Of course! It's beautiful. Did you do all these drawings?"

"Yeah, be glad I'm in forth grade now and you can actually recognize them."

Emma laughed. "How did you do this?"

"I can't share my secrets! That would spoil the fun."

"Really?"

"Well let's just say I'm good at making things… kind of like how you can read liars and find people."

"You're pretty good at it too, you know." She said.

"The charming family has been known for it." He said.

There was another moment of silence, but Emma broke it.

"Now these will probably be like drugs to your mom so you're going to have to keep them hidden." She said.

Henry ripped open the wrapping paper.

"Oh my Gosh! The BIG book of fairy tales? This is perfect! I needed something besides our story to get background on the characters."

"There's… uh… more…" she said awkwardly.

Henry looked some more. "A Spy book? Wow! For operation cobra? And It has techniques too. I thought you were against all this though."

"Well, kid, I was thinking… maybe it isn't so far out of fetch. Things in this town have been weird, and your mom certainly does act like an evil queen… But there is something else in there."

Henry gently picked up a small teddy bear. "What's this?" he asked softly, meeting her gaze.

"It was yours… when you were born. I gave it to you, but when I took you to the adoption agency a few weeks later, I forgot it at my house. It some how felt on the floor on the way out."

"I thought you said you weren't sentimental."

Emma sighed. "I just… felt like I should keep it. You know? As a remembrance of you. But now I want you to have it."

"You've moved 7 times in the past 10 years and you kept this of all things?"

"Yeah, well it was the only thing really worth remembering."

Henry smiled at her lightly. "Thanks… mom." He said softly.

Before Emma could respond, he hugged her fiercely. "And merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Henry."

There was suddenly a large bang on the door. Somehow both knew who it was.

Emma looked at Henry. "Hide. I'll tell her you went elsewhere, then I'll take you home."

"Do I have to go?" he whined.

"Henry, let me deal with her. I don't want you to get hurt."

Henry paused then ran to the kitchen to hide.


	5. Chapter 5: Mama Bears

Emma walked over to the door, but before she could open it, the Evil Queen… er… Regina walked in.

She crossed her arms. "Madame Mayor. Nice of you to grace me with your presence. Oh and look at that, on Christmas." She said with an overly sarcastic voice.

"Where's Henry? I know he's here."

"Well you know wrong, if that's the case." She said not flinching what so ever.

Regina gave her a death glare. "I wouldn't be so smug, Ms. Swan. I could have you destroyed in a matter of seconds."

"You clearly don't know me." She said simply.

"I know enough to be able to say that you're fooling everyone in this town, but me, Ms. Swan. You don't know what loyalty is, being that you never had it upon yourself."

"As a matter of fact, I'm more of a "do what I want" type of person, and being loyal is always something I aspire to be. And I'd watch your mouth, Regina, because I've yet to show exactly what _I _can do."

Regina narrowed her eyes. "What exactly could you do? You're the new girl in town, and soon to be nothing but a face that's to be forgotten. I'm the heart and soul of this town."

"Too bad you have neither." Emma challenged. "And I can assure you, that as long I live, I'm defending Henry, and in doing that, I'd need to be close to me."

"Defending him? You're ruining him. You make him think that just because you're his birth mother that you can just walk into his life again and start being a mother, 10 years after the beginning stages. I'm his mother."

"And you think by you "raising him" for the past 10 years that makes you a suitable mother. Henry's told me about you're method of curing fevers, how a maid practically raised him until he was 5, you're constant lying, not letting him have any friends, locking him up alone for hours on end starting at the age of seven, not letting him watch TV, not listening to him, and most of all, letting him get bullied, practically psychologically killing him. Then to make up for it, you send him to a therapist, instead of actually dealing with it yourself. Yeah, you're mother of the year."

Regina scowled. "At least I wouldn't give him up for the world. You gave him up the moment you laid eyes on him."

"I love him enough to let him go for his best chance possible, regardless of how it affects me. I don't treat him like a possession who you can just leave around and ignore when you want."

"Who are you?" Regina asked.

"I'm Henry's mother." Emma said sternly.

"No, you're not. You haven't been around."

"Really? Because I'm pretty sure the hours I've spent with him these past months have added up to more than you've spent with him in the past 10 years! And when you are around, you're busy making his Christmas's horrible."

"What are you trying to say? You want custody of him? Because I'm sure the law enforcements would find it interesting that someone who wanted no part in her child's life, suddenly wants it all. You can't do that. They'll ban you from him."

Emma's anger surged. "The law enforcements? Don't even get me started on that! I could have you charged for about a hundred things. Starting with child abuse."

Regina was silent.

Emma clenched her fists. "Because if you lay so much as another finger on him, you've got hell to pay."

Regina's brow furrowed. "He told you about tonight? That would mean you are lying to me, making it kidnap."

"I said he isn't here. Which he isn't. He was earlier though, and told me about how you not only allowed a gang of kids in his grade physically harass him, but you slapped him across the face for defending himself in front of the entire town council."

"It was hardly a tap, and I shouldn't have to explain any of this to you."

"A tap that left a red mark on his face, and you do. You and I both know that I have the power to report you outside of this town."

Regina's jaw clenched. "Where is he?"

"Have you tried his therapist? Or his castle? Or the hospital? Have you ever thought about that?"

Regina's nostrils flared. "Good night, Ms. Swan."

Emma smiled cockily. "Merry Christmas, _Evil Queen_." She said as she shut the door.

She locked the door then ran to the cabinet in which Henry hid in.

"Emma, I heard everything." He said softly.

Emma swallowed. She didn't want him to hear. The heat fled her face, and sadness replaced it.

"Do you really love me?" he asked. Of all things, he said this.

She smiled lightly. "Yeah, kid… er… Henry. I do."

"That's good, because I love you too."

Emma smiled. "Alright. Well, let's get you home. She knows you've been here already, so I want you to go in your room, and pretend you're sleeping.

"I have to do that anyway, Santa's coming."

Emma smiled at the boy's innocence. "Good plan."

"Emma… is she going to hurt me?"

"No. No, that's never going to happen. God forbid she does, you tell me Henry. Got me? Don't give her chances? We need to put a stop to this. Tell me about the bullies too. Because they aren't going to be a problem anymore either."

Henry smiled. "Thanks, Emma."

He hugged her tightly. After a minute of hugging. The clock rung for midnight.

"Hey it's Christmas!" Henry said.

"Merry Christmas, kid." She said smiling.

"Merry Christmas, Emma."


End file.
